All that is Solid … is a radical blog that seeks to promote a future beyond capital's social universe. "All that is solid melts into air" (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 'The Communist Manifesto', 1848).

The last winter has seen the biggest breakdown in the world financial system since the Great Depression, and the opening-up of what promises to be a deep and prolonged recession.

Banks have collapsed. Household names from Woolworths to Wedgwood have gone to the wall. The ideological dominance of the free-marketers and neoliberals has been swept away.

And yet few are challenging the real cause of the crisis – capitalism itself. The broadsheets write acres about Karl Marx, but in most Western countries the workers’ movement is not even fit to take a punch at the ruling class.

We will be discussing the composition of the global working class today, its relation to the economic crisis and the prospects of uprooting this system.

Resistance rises world wide, if we in the US do not see a lot of it. The French general strike most recently demonstrated that students and school workers can indeed initiate and lead struggle for social justice. Here is an update from Italy: http://www.counterpunch.org/quadrupanni02042009.htmlThe UTLA test boycott is still on. Let’s spread this idea and expand it to ALL the high-stakes exams. http://www.utla.net/pab Friends in Fresno are preparing to make presentations to their school board for just that purpose.http://vimeo.com/2904353Here is an opportunity to make some international connections:American Councils for Education: Seeking Fellowship PlacementsThe American Councils for Education, in association with the U.S. Department of State, is seeking to place five young professionals in non-governmental internships across the country during the fall 2009 intern season (September-December).? Prospective interns will be arriving in the United States in mid-August under the auspices of the federally funded Legislative Education and Practice program (LEAP) and will be ready to report to work in early September. LEAP Fellows are dedicated public servants between 23 and 33 years of age from Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey. They are college -educated (many have advanced degrees in law or international studies), speak fluent English, have had previous U.S.-based experience, and are eager to learn how Americans address rule of law, civil society, work in advocacy, infrastructure, energy, human rights, and related topics, so that they may better their own societies. Interns will be available to work a full-time schedule and will be fully supported by American Councils and the U.S. Department of States in terms of compensation, health insurance, etc. To learn more, please contact RaeJean Stokes at 202-833-7522 or via email at: leap@americancouncils.orgThanks to Joe B and C, Amber, Donna, Sharyn, Erin, B and N, Bob, Susan O and H, Gene, Patrick, Harold, Bonnie, Kathy, Angie, Ravi, Bill, A and G, Karen C, Willie Himebaugh, Chuck R, Tom T, and Wayne.

Spread the word. NO CONCESSIONS. Concessions are like giving blood to sharks. It only makes bosses want more (look at the United Auto Workers). Not one step back. In fact, we want MORE. We know the bosses are weak. We want a shorter work week with no cut in pay. No Layoffs. Add another shift, cut class size. No evictions. Free health care for all. Tax the rich. Free wireless everywhere. Stop high stakes exams. Recruiters off the campuses. Academic freedom for students and teachers. (and you can make up some of your own, I am sure).

Take a look at the Rouge Forum blog and join in the discussion. If we can get that going, we can demonstrate the collective nature of our problems, which have few if any individual solutions, and share information about what people are doing:

Juan Cole believes Obama may have to delay his Afghan surge as the US supply routes are cut

Gilbert Gonzalez is working on a video on the Bracero Program. He’d like some help. This is a teaser video

Each lecture of the month from December onwards focuses upon a topic in Marx’s Capital. More precisely, it follows chronologically the main topics of Marx’s Capital Volume I, from the “commodity form” to primitive accumulation”.

The mini-series “Exploring Marx’s Capital” is related to the Capital Reading Group of Capital Volume I (both in English and in Dutch) that we started in November at the IIRE and at the University of Amsterdam.

The meetings of the Capital reading group take place twice a month, and are followed by the public lecture at the end of the month. If you are interested in participating, please do not hesitate to contact the
following emails: sara@iire.org – for the reading group in English; leesgroepmarxkapitaal@hotmail.com – for the group held in Dutch.

We are pleased to announce the Winter/Spring 2009 schedule for the Foucault Society’s Seminar Series on Michel Foucault’s The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France, 1978-1979 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). Our year-long public seminar pursues Foucault’s questions: What is at stake in liberalism? How do liberal governments produce governable subjects—individuals who consent to be governed? We situate the lectures in the context of Foucault’s better known work (e.g. Discipline and Punish and History of Sexuality), discuss what he means by biopolitics, consider how the lectures develop his theory of power/knowledge, and debate how this text can help us to refine our understanding of Foucault’s intellectual and political project.

This program is funded by a mini-grant from the New York Council for the Humanities.

All meetings will be held from 7:00pm to 9:30pm at Macaulay Honors College —CUNY, 35 West 67th Street , New York , NY 10023 .

To register, for more information, or to purchase the book at our special discounted rate, please contact the Seminar Organizers: Shifra Diamond sdiamond@gwu.edu or Michael Jolley: MJolley@gc.cuny.edu

About the Foucault Society:

The Foucault Society is an independent, non-profit educational organization offering a variety of forums dedicated to critical study of the ideas of Michel Foucault (1926-1984) within a contemporary context. The Foucault Society is a 501 (c) (3) recognized public charity. As such donations are tax deductible under section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code.

This film, directed by Bryan Singer (who directed The Usual Suspects – one of my favourite films) is reviewed by Gregory Rikowski on his MySpace blog. The screenplay was by Christopher McQuarrie – who also wrote the screenplay for The Usual Suspects.

Anyone interested in the current crisis of capital would find this pamphlet by Andrew Kliman to be most timely and illuminating. Kliman demolishes several myths, over-exaggerations and hypes regarding the current crisis of capital and indicates its real roots. He shows that the ideas of Karl Marx have much greater explanatory power than those of Keynes or mainstream economics for understanding our predicament.

The full details regarding this pamphlet are:

Capitalist Crisis: An Interview with Andrew Kliman, Pamphlet No.4, November 2008, published by The Commune

Launching a fortnightly seminar discussing the main issues & themes in Karl Marx’s Capital Volume I

Open to anyone with an interest in finding out more about Marx’s great work.

‘WHY READ CAPITAL?’
Marx in the 21st Century

Speaker: Prof. Alex Callinicos

Tuesday 10th February
6pm
Room K4U.12

Strand Campus
King’s College

London

– – –

The ever-deepening crisis of capitalism is sending tremors through the dominant neo-liberal economic consensus.

Many people are now questioning the logic of the free-market, and looking for an explanation of the current crisis.

Prof Alex Callinicos (European Studies, Author of The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx) looks again at Marx’s Capital, his understanding of the system, and argues for its continued and growing importance.

– – –

Called by a group of King’s students (in association with the International Socialism Journal, http://www.isj.org.uk) this meeting hopes to launch a fortnightly seminar discussing the main issues & themes in Capital Volume I, but is open to anyone with an interest in finding out more about Marx’s great work.

– – –

Copies of Capital Volume I & associated works will be available at a stall provided kindly by Bookmarks Bookshop: http://www.bookmarks.uk.com

Those who wonder what their NEA union leaders and staff are paid can check EIA, a right-libertarian site, here (there are instructions on how to check on the LMR 2) http://www.eiaonline.com/archives/20090126.htm Note that NEA past president Reg Weaver took home $554,524 and he probably was able to live on his expense account.